BOHUNT WOKINGHAM LAUNCHES DUKE OF EDINBURGH AWARD

As students diligently began logging hours spent participating in various skills and sports as well as volunteering in the local community, the team held a kit evening at our local Go Outdoors store. The store manager eagerly inviting us back in 2020 for our next event possibly having met his monthly sales target in one day. With equipment purchased everyone was ready for our practice expeditions to begin in April. Nervous hugs goodbye were given in the car park as we took eight teams at a time to experience the joy, and sometimes tears, of walking with a full pack across open countryside and into the bewildering entanglement of paths that are Hurt Wood. Bentley Copse campsite hosted our weary adventurers before they were off again for day two.

Determined to ‘go large’, the Bohunt Wokingham community rose to the challenge with no fewer than 30 staff, parent and community volunteers putting themselves forward to help with the award.

It was back in 2017 that the initial planning began. Many maps were purchased and pored over with the aim of finding wild countryside on our doorstep for students to explore. We settled on the area of the North Downs National Park to the west of Guildford (known as Shere Hell by some at Liphook) for our practice and new territory to the Trust in the Tilford area for the qualifying expedition.

Summer holidays were spent walking routes and identifying suitable check points. Volunteers were also invited to walk the routes as part of their own training and we were all soon becoming familiar with what would be our stomping ground. A night navigation evening in the pouring rain did not deter our steely volunteers who dried off in a local hostelry where tales of derring-do were exchanged.

The Trust rallied round to help us, with Liz Briggs paying us regular visits and Shaf Hansraj and his team helping with everything from the loan of maps and kit, to training our assessors. A fantastic example of Trust first!

Fast forward to January 2019 and a hall filled with Year 9 students and their parents had an air of eager anticipation for our launch of the award. 104 of the 180 students in the Year group signed up and we were on our way.

At the time of writing, we have returned from our qualifying expedition weekend where every student that started finished. The last day was a real test of our students’ grit and determination as they battled uphill at the Devil’s punchbowl, longing for sight of the coaches to deliver them both home and also perhaps to the start of another adventure…

With a special thanks to all the volunteers at Bohunt School Wokingham for making this happen - we are changing lives.